A Deployable Coat Rack

The classic coat rack was an essential part of home decor. Coat racks are disappearing and its design has not progressed in many years. The following is a customization coat rack that is playful and is designed to hold up to 15 items. The design uses a shutter hinge mechanism that deploys from one to five hooks so that the user can have numerous hooks to hold their item(s).

My motivation for the concept was to explore how to make a mundane product more exciting with a transformation involved in its the cycle. My concept development research began sketches of a coat rack that is customizable, foldable, and expandable. Once I came across a shutter hinge mechanism with my research I explored how I can apply this deployability to the coat rack with further sketches, soft model testing, and SolidWorks simulations.

‍Skills Sketching / Prototyping / CAD Simulation Evaluation

The project began exploring how can a coat rack be customizable and unique compared to existing product on the market. Through sketching iterated three different rack system that can be manipulated: a magnetic system where the user changes the hook location, a folding system where the hook extends using hinges, and a deployable concept where the hook spins to be expose. Exploring the deployable concept furtherI came across how camera shutter is deployed and explored through CAD if I can use this mechanism for my final concept.